Thursday, September 08, 2005

No.28

Maddy is the DJ, her song of nostalgia is: Back of my hand.by the Jags Dial up users

Ritual no.28: Sit on a dustbin, try to light a fire of a banana-Think of Esther Williams

GilbertandGrape have currently been discussing the media’s way of portraying fear and hysteria. Here is some thoughts on the topic set in gender/perspective by a French theorist. We give this to Maddy 01.00 in the morning:

”In speculum of the other woman Irigaray embraced hysteria not as a malady but as another way of thinking that the West had systematically suppressed, though in a manner that carried the traces of hysteria's irrationality within itself. The semiotic is effaced in the symbolic, although its traces can be detected in the very place of its repression.” Luce Irigaray

Gilbert: we question whether media are adopting binary repressions and stereotypical presentations of topics as fear and hysteria.

Gilbert: The conglomerate media re-appropriating hysteria as an active role – within its own power structures.

Maddy: I'm also interested in the hysteria for the banal. Today bbc radio one are looking for a new controller. If I was controller of bbc radio one I would stop them from playing james blunt who used to be in the army, falls in love willy nilly and looks slightly insincere. I would also stop them from talking over records that you are trying to listen to. It is mean of bbc radio one to try and steal Terry Wogans listeners from radio two becasue Terry Wogan has two million more listeners than chris moyles. I think they should leave Terry Wogan alone or bring him over to Radio One because he has a lovely comfy voice that makes you think everything is OK.

Peter says:its like everyone is heading to a middle groundPeter says:which is an internal media hysteria. It’s weird for a mean/middle/medium to be a point of hysterical focusPeter says:media is scared of extremes – it too has narrow boat politicsPeter says: if you are too left wing, and want to win, get toward the middle and make it a new middle magnetPeter says:I hate ken bruce and jo wiley

How we use the word ritual

We see ritual as
being a set of prescribed rules:
A specific place, which can be imaginary
Action that can be arbitrary
Context that can be immersed in a certain stillness/mood.

The ruling is public,
clear and social, the meaning may be or it may be indeterminate, private and
individual. Everyday actions like brushing teeth, wearing shoes, cooking a meal
can become the action in a ritual. By naming these actions in our rituals we
hope to bring attention to a connection that can be made regardless of place
and position or religion, but a position or notion that belong whilst moving
as an undefined.

Any type of
behaviour may be said to turn into a ritual when it is stylized or formalized,
and made repetitive in that form
(S.F Nadel 1953)

What interests
us about rituals is the opportunity for implicit multiple meanings, their ungrammatical
ness and as a form of response. We have talked about our collaboration being
something, which is a complex web of political viewpoints, and working through
performance rituals has allowed for an ambiguity of meaning and message
If we assume there must be a system to ritual or rules to organize its operation,
we might expect to recognize ungrammatical usage of the code, however
the ungrammatical is tolerated. Chaos, fragmentation, multiples, set amongst
clear set of prescribed rules describes our rituals. Prescribed rules and stylizations
are central to our work and the repetition of these even more so.